UEFA adds steroid profiling to anti-doping programme

UEFA's medical committee has approved long-term analysis of urine samples in addition to existing blood monitoring for its biological passport programme.

Each player tested in UEFA club and national team competitions has a biological passport which "indirectly reveals the effects of doping as a result, as well as providing intelligence for target testing," the European football body said Friday.

In 2013, UEFA approved retrospectively analysing urine samples from 900 players to decide if steroid profiling was required. Re-testing was anonymous and positive samples would not provoke anti-doping cases.

The results of that study have not been revealed.

Though top-level football has few doping cases, UEFA suspended three Russian players from CSKA Moscow in the 2009-10 season for doping violations.

Anti-doping programs at major tournaments have been criticised for not having unannounced tests between matches.

UEFA and FIFA typically pick two players at random from each squad to give samples after a match. Critics say this creates a doping window of several days between matches.

On Friday, UEFA said it will recruit a medical officer and 20 doping control officials for its testing program at the 2016 European Championship in France.

"In-competition testing will involve testing at all 51 matches, with over 200 individual tests taking place,' UEFA said. "For out-of and in-competition testing, blood, urine and serum samples will be taken for each tested player."

UEFA said samples will be stored "long-term after the tournament," allowing for analysis using new testing methods.